first began thinking about whether we
stop caring about student issues once
we graduate when attending the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative
party conferences as a youth delegate for
the Scouting Association in 2013.
The MPs had questions to ask us about
young people and public engagement, and
we answered them as best we could. At the
Labour conference, a young MP asked me:
“How best can I engage with young people?”
The question may seem loaded. Who really cares about student loans, graduation,
employment, tuition fees, and all the other
burdens in post-university life? Almost certainly not the vast majority of the population. However, this is a question that goes
to the root of public engagement and student representation in government.
In August 2015, Ipsos Mori research
showed that only 43 per cent of those aged
18 to 24 turned out to vote in the 2015 General Election. Of those who voted, 43 per
cent voted for Labour, 27 per cent for the
Conservatives, and the rest for the smaller
Westminster parties.
Turnout rises with age. In real terms, this
means that, although young people account for 12 per cent of the UK population,
their vote is worth dramatically less, and
those who are older have greater proportional electoral influence. How likely are
these older people to fight for “student issues” really?
The strange thing is that, while we so often
hear about the political apathy of young
people, students often seem more politically active and vocal than other groups.
Protests against tuition fees and austerity
have become common place since 2010,
and have gained some wider support from
teachers, doctors, nurses and those adversely effected by government policies.
Other voters rally around students when issues like fee rises come under scrutiny, but
this support wanes as the news cycles on.
While students may focus on issues like
tuition fees, employment, and education,
these are subjugated in parliament to other
issues such as economic growth, public services, and global competitiveness – issues

with mass appeal. Though support for student issues may exist, the government argues – possibly correctly – that it has more
pressing problems to deal with.
However, student issues themselves may
not be the problem. At the core of the problem with youth representation is the fact
that students have less power over political processes, either because they opt out of
formally participating, or are deliberately
excluded.

If students start
voting radically,
does this create a
divide?
Late last year, the electoral register was
changed by the Conservative government
in preparation for its seat redistribution efforts. This was done in full knowledge that
students, being proportionally more likely
to live in cities and fall into a younger demographic band, were far less likely to put
themselves back on the list in their desired
location than traditional Tory voters – rural,
older people.
The mechanics of student exclusion from
politics can take even more basic forms. A
prominent theory is that the first past the
post system disproportionately affects the
voting power of students, many of whom
vote in their home constituencies, diluting
the power of the group by spreading its
votes across the entire country.
Of course, these problems are not just limited to Britain. Max, a Biology and English
student on exchange from New Zealand,
says it is the same everywhere. “We [New
Zealanders] have the same problems,” he
says, “It’s universal – but socio-economic
factors have a large part to play.”
A seismic shift in political agendas over the
few last decades has led to a more divided

UK. The Iraq War and the financial crisis
have put political polarisation and anti-establishment sentiment on the rise, especially among students who have grown up
amid this political cynicism and turmoil.
Mikolaj, a first year studying Chemical Engineering says he thinks an “anti-establishment feeling means that young people are
mostly at the extreme ends of the political
spectrum”.
If students start voting radically, does this
create a divide between students standing up for “student issues” and the general consensus which is largely apathetic
to them? Students who have grown up in
this ideologically charged political environment might be so radical that they’ve effectively barred themselves from mainstream
political representation in recent years, triggering a shift away from their interests in
government.
This may be an overstated case, however:
anyone who’s watched the stock footage
of a teenage Jez Corbyn or Ed Miliband
knows that students have always been at
the forefront of radical, anti-establishment
politics. It seems to be that a disparate student political force has always existed, it
just hasn’t been politically advantageous to
capitalise on it.
An exception to this rule is Scotland, where
the SNP has successfully courted the student vote. In championing the rights of students, the SNP have found a proxy for Scottish economic and political freedom from
Westminster – students in the Caledonian
utopia have no fees, English students under the Tory yoke are heartlessly forced to
pay through the nose. In spite of not gaining independence in the 2014 referendum,
the 2015 general elections showed that the
SNP was able to retain the momentum it
had built – a striking example of the power
the student vote can bring if cannily utilised.
The fact is that political processes, low student turnout in elections, and protests may
seem to suggest that no one cares about
student issues outside of the campus. However, while problems in student representation in parliament do exist, student policies
are important, and a government which
were to stand up for these issues may be
one with a real chance of electability.